Tumulus : WP Cumulus for Typepad (english version)

"Tumulus" is an Flash based tag cloud widget which uses scripts based on Roy Tanck's WP Cumulus plugin for Wordpress and Steve Pringett's MT Cumulus. My team was eager to use Roy's original Cumulus plugin on our MT Blogs but as I'm a fellow Typepad user, I had to find how to convert it to use it on mine. The result of this work is the widget you can see in my banner displaying the categories of my blog. Just hover your mouse over the Flash object to make it work.

To make it work on Typepad, it's really easy but you need to use advanded templates to make it dynamic :

1) Start by downloading :
http://yannicklejeune.blogs.com/blog_management/flash/swfobject-download.js
http://yannicklejeune.blogs.com/blog_management/flash/tagcloud-download.swf

2) Click the Control Panel tab to access your Control Panel area. Then click the Files tab to enter your File Manager.
3) Put your files in any convenient folder and rename tagcloud-download.swf to tagcloud.swf.
4) Click the Design sub-tab under the Weblogs tab and Click Current Design
5) Create a module called "tumulus"
6) In that module, insert following code (don't add or remove any extra space) replacing PUT FULL HTTP PATH by the path of your files :

<script type="text/javascript" src="PUT FULL HTTP PATH/swfobject-download.js"></script>
<div id="mttagcloudflash">Tumulus by <a href="http://www.yannicklejeune.com">Yannick Lejeune</a>, <a href="http://www.roytanck.com/">Roy Tanck</a> and <a href="http://www.6000rpms.com">Steve Pringett</a> requires Flash player 9 or better.</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
var rnumber = Math.floor(Math.random()*9999999);
var so = new SWFObject("PUT FULL HTTP PATH/tagcloud.swf?r="+rnumber, "mttagcloudflash", "500", "500", "9", "#FFFFFF");
so.addParam("allowScriptAccess", "always");
so.addParam("quality", "high");
so.addParam("wmode", "transparent");
so.addVariable("tcolor", "0x000000");
so.addVariable("tspeed", "100");
so.addVariable("distr", "true");
so.addVariable("mode", "cats");

var categorylist = "";

<MTCategories>
    <MTBlogIfArchives archive_type="Category">
categorylist +=    encodeURI('<a href="<$MTCategoryArchiveLink$>" title="See posts in <$MTCategoryArchiveLink$>"><$MTCategoryLabel$></a> (<$MTCategoryCount$>)<br />')
    <MTElse>
    </MTElse>
    </MTBlogIfArchives>
</MTCategories>

so.addVariable("categories", categorylist);
so.write("mttagcloudflash");

</script>

6) Configure the way your cloud appears by changing parameters in the javascript. Full documentation is provided here.

7) Go to your sidebar template (or any place you want to put your cloud into) and add :
<MTInclude module="tumulus">

8) Rebuild your blog, it should work.

Please leave any question in comments, I'll provide answers as soon as possible.

Comments

[Rédigé par : Mike]

Merci Yannick pour ton tutoriel, très clair, même pour un novice de la technique comme moi.
Seule difficulté que je rencontre sur Typepad : "Tumulus requires Flash player 9 or better" (cf la typelist crée sur mon blog, en bas, colonne de gauche). Saurais-tu comment je dois procéder ?
Merci pour ton aide.

[Rédigé par : Yannick Lejeune]

Mickael -> Il faut que tu utilises les templates avancés et pas les typelists sinon ça ne peut pas fonctionner.

Regarde la version française de ce tutorial, tu y trouveras les bons intitulés pour les menus.

@+

[Rédigé par : Mike]

Merci Yannick pour ta réponse. Je vais regarder mes templates avancés de plus près…
@+
Mike

[Rédigé par : franck]

Est-il possible de spécifier dans les liens du cloud des frames ?
Merci

[Rédigé par : Beej]

Hi Yannick - is it sill only possible in advanced templates? Thanks in advance.

[Rédigé par : Yannick Lejeune]

Beej -> unfortunately I think so because some Typepad advanced tags are needed to make it work.

[Rédigé par : Yannick Lejeune]

Beej -> unfortunately I think so because some Typepad advanced tags are needed to make it work.

[Rédigé par : Patrick "Patch" Toepel]

It isn't showing up. Could you give me an example of the path you used in typepad and I am trying to use it in my side bar. Where in the code can I shrink the tumulus...sorry. I'm still newbie.

[Rédigé par : Yannick Lejeune]

You nee to use advanced templates, not just an insertion in a typelist as some of the code I give is dynamic.

[Rédigé par : Yannick Lejeune]

Oui il suffit de remplacer la partie sur les catégories
en ajoutant des lignes

categorylist += encodeURI('Google (12)')

[Rédigé par : Patrick "Patch" Toepel]

I'm messing something up. I still think it has to do with the file. I did switch it over to advanced tab.

[Rédigé par : Gorka]

Yannick, Patrick --> I'm afraid there are some mistakes in the current post :
1. "replacing FULL blabla.." : ?? isn't it "replacing PUT FULL blabla.." ???
2. the tagloud.swf file has to be renamed once downloded coz it's mismatching with the code kindly given by Yannick. right ?

anyway, it still doesn't work on my side. LMAO. but it can help.
Ride hard ! ~G

[Rédigé par : Yannick Lejeune]

Please look at the file name, it must be renamed.

[Rédigé par : Yannick Lejeune]

Thanks Gorka, you're totally right and it's fixed !

[Rédigé par : Jim Henry]

Thanks for all your hard work, from a grateful Typepad 'advanced template' user.

Unfortunately nothing seems to happen when I click on:

http://yannicklejeune.blogs.com/blog_management/flash/tagcloud-download.swf

[Rédigé par : ♫ Melody ♫]

Hello Yannick...
I've done all the steps you've mentioned, but still the tagcloud is not working.

The announcement on my blog says:

Tumulus by Yannick Lejeune, Roy Tanck and Steve Pringett requires Flash player 9 or better.

I've donwloaded Flash Player 9 & 10 but i still keep getting that message.

Could you please tell me what i have to do to make the tagcloud working properly?

Sincere Greetings, Melody

[Rédigé par : ♫ Melody ♫]

Hello Yannick...
I've done all the steps you've mentioned, but still the tagcloud is not working.

The announcement on my blog says:

Tumulus by Yannick Lejeune, Roy Tanck and Steve Pringett requires Flash player 9 or better.

I've donwloaded Flash Player 9 & 10 but i still keep getting that message.

Could you please tell me what i have to do to make the tagcloud working properly?

Sincere Greetings, Melody

[Rédigé par : Jon Haywood]

5) Create a module called "tumulus"

I get lost here...cant see how to do this :o(

[Rédigé par : Peter Starmer]

Nice tutorial - I wrote one for custom integration of the moving tag cloud into a bespoke php website (example with sphider - http://www.peterstarmer.com/articles/php_articles/how_to_add_wp_cumulos_to_a_non_wordpress_website.html

Hope it helps anyone who like me, uses bespoke cms.

[Rédigé par : Multivores]

Salut Comment puis contacter en direct le webmaster de ce blog, j'aurai aimer avoir une précision, en tout cas site bon!

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